


Underwater

by EmberandShadow



Category: The Magicians (TV), The Magicians - Lev Grossman
Genre: F/F, Fluff, brakebills au, julia goes to brakebills, wickoff, with a dash of crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 08:57:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11055636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberandShadow/pseuds/EmberandShadow
Summary: Kady is sly when it comes to getting a kiss from Julia





	Underwater

Julia was in awe. For most of her life she’d loved the very thought of magic, she’d loved stories set in magical worlds. The Fillory books were her obsession and she learned magic tricks to pass the time. And then she’d grown up, set her mind on the real world. Because that’s what she had to do. Julia was a deeply logical person, and Quentin could linger in their childhood mindset of magic and mystery all he liked, but Julia was going to go to college and get her degree and make her way in the world.

Or at least, that was the plan.

Now she has to tell herself to breathe, to remind herself that without the air entering and leaving her body she can’t keep living- that is, after all, the logical thought. But in the back of her mind she wonders if she actually needs to breath at all, because there’s a sea of green grass in front of her and a building just beyond that and she was just in an elevator in Brooklyn and this is _definitely_ not where that elevator should have taken her. The logical side of her brain is trying to tell her that this is all just a dream, a hallucination, some weird trick.

But the other side of her? The fanciful side that’s been dormant for too long is waking up and telling her that this is real, this is _magic_ and that it’s _really happening._

She doesn’t know which side of herself to trust just yet so she heads across the Sea to see what this is all about.

~~~

Julia passes the Brakebills exam. Of course. Because how could someone as so magically gifted as her _not_ pass, right?

She’d found Quentin quickly- he had passed the exam as well, obviously- and Quentin introduced her to a guy named Eliot. While Eliot led them around campus accompanied by a woman named Margo, Julia is preoccupied by just _looking_ at everything. This whole place just _leaks_ magic and Julia can’t quite grasp that this is real, she keeps thinking that this will all fall away any minute.

It doesn’t seem unlikely.

~~~

Julia opens the door to her dorm expecting some lavish room adorned with magical tools and decoration that looks mystical. Instead she finds a brunette on a bed smoking and reading.

“Um, hi.” Julia says, closing the door softly. She wasn’t away she was going to have a roommate.

“Hey.” The girl says,  not looking up from her book.

Julia awkwardly shuffles to her bed and starts to put her things away.

“I’m Kady.” The girl offers up.

When Julia turns around she finds the girl peeking out at her from around her book.

“Julia.” She responds, and then resumes unpacking.

~~~

In a turn of events that logical Julia could never have predicted, she and Kady become very good friends. At first glance Julia thought she would dislike her new roommate, seeing as the girl had a penchant for steeling her things and not paying much attention in class, but after seeing her fire off that battle magic spell when the beast attacked, Julia couldn’t help but be intrigued.

She wanted to know where Kady had learned it, how difficult it was, if she knew more, and so on. But more than that, she liked the attitude Kady had. She liked how Kady didn’t back down to authority like some of the others did, she liked how Kady questioned things- because it seemed to Julia that they were the only two in this whole school that really got there was more to see here than you’d think.

So they became friends. They studied together, partied together (Kady had brought out the wilder part of Julia because, while she had gone to parties in the past, she never actually _partied_ ). And sometimes they’d sneak into the library and steal books that were meant for the upperclassmen or sometimes even ones that were restricted. And then they practiced spells together, ones that left them breathless and inspired or ones that left them reeling and vowing to never do that again.

And eventually, something deeper started to grow between them.

~~~

“I’m not sure I understand this one.” Julia says as they stand in their bathing suits while the bathtub fills up.

“Oh come on, Brilliant Julia doesn’t understand a spell?” Kady teases with a smirk.

“I understand the spell.” Julia says, rolling her eyes, “But I do not understand the point of the bathtub.”

“It’s creative thinking.”

“It’s nowhere in the spell.”

“It’s _fun_.” Kady crosses her arms. “What? You don’t want to take a bath with me?”

“No I do- I mean not that I want to- I don’t _not_ want- ugh.” Julia blushes, stumbling over her words like they’re a series of bunched up rugs she didn’t see lying on the ground.

Kady chuckles, turns off the water, and steps inside the tub. She holds out her hand to Julia, “Come on, little miss stutter, this spells not going to happen without you.”

Julia takes her hand and steps inside the bathtub. They debate sitting down but go against it considering how small the tub is. So they stand, hold hands, and start the chant. The spell is supposed to “enhance an aspect of the room” which could mean possibly anything, but Julia theorizes it’s one of those prank spells that does something stupid like size up one of the objects in the room.

Halfway through the spell Kady leans over to get the soap they’d mixed together. The actual spell just required some sort of base to tie the spell to the room, and since Kady was really going with this bathtub idea, she went with soap. While keeping up the chant Kady rubs the soap on Julia’s chest- something that makes Julia’s heart stutter- and then blows on it. Julia closes her eyes and lets the strange pleasure work through her body.

And then she does the same to Kady. And Kady keep eye contact while she does it, smirking like she knows something. Somehow they’ve gotten closer to each other than they were before.

They finish the chant, and then suddenly the entire room is filled with water. “Enhance some aspect of the room”, Kady must have known what that meant. Hence the bathtub. Julia gets it now.

“Really?” She says, somehow able to breathe and speak beneath the water.

“What?” Kady asks innocently, swimming through the water.

“ _This_ is what you wanted to accomplish? Why?” Julia joins her in swimming through the bathroom.

“Haven’t you ever wanted to be a mermaid?” Kady asks.

“If I wanted to be a mermaid I could just go to the beach or a damn swimming pool and pretend I’m a mermaid.” Julia points out.

“Okay, but then you’d have to make up your house as well, now you’re a mermaid with a home.” Kady counters.

Julia laughs, shakes her head, and does a front flip.

“You’d make a very pretty mermaid.” Kady says, running her hands through Julia’s incredibly soft hair.

“Yeah, you would too.” Julia says.

“You ever kissed someone underwater?” Kady asks, cupping Julia’s face and pulling her- or maybe pulling herself, it’s hard to tell underwater- closer.

Julia shakes her head, wondering if this is going where she thinks it is. “I haven’t.”

“Would you like to?” Kady searches her eyes.

They both know that this was inevitable, they’ve been leading to this for weeks now, so Julia only nods.

And the kiss is sweet, but short, as it’s interrupted by Quentin who opens the bathroom door. They wash out of the room and end up on the floor, tangled in each other, the water from the spell dissipating and leaving nothing but them soaking wet. The water in the bathtub is the only thing that remains. Quentin gives them a look of shock before walking away, unable to form words.

Kady and Julia just laugh. For several minutes. Until it dies down and Julia looks fondly at Kady.

“You know,” She says, “The next time you want to kiss me underwater you can just take me to the pool.”

Kady laughs, “Noted.”

And then they share many kisses, several of which interrupted by giggles.  


End file.
